Cindy and I finally made the trip up to Jim and Bev Clow's in Alberta, and I brought home "Orange Crush", a rolling mill, and the power unit. For those who don't know, Jim is a master fabricator and welder. We met several years ago when he came to my shop for a Bladesmithing Class, and have been great friends ever since. "Orang Crush" is the 80 ton forging press that Jim built, along with a rolling mill, and a power unit that consists of a 4 cyl Kabota diesel engine, a great enclosure, and a huge fluid tank.

Cindy took a day off work, and we headed north on Friday morning. We made a brief stop to visit with Jay Kemble in Milk River, AB, then scooted on up ot Jim & Bev's.

Friday Jim forged out a few "cans", and on Saturday we got serious about loading things.

Here's a pic of the power unit without the covers:

After scooting things around, to level out the load, everything got strapped down and ready to roll:

When we took off from Jim's about mid morning on Sunday, I wasn't sure my ford F150 was gona pull the load! I finally got it figured out that if I stayed at 55mph, things went smoothly.....so 55 it was. Generally its a 4 hour trip, but with the load we took our time, and ended up home just shy of 6 hours later.

Everything is safe an sound at my place....

Now the "work" starts....gotta get it all unloaded, in place, and make a few mods to both the press and rolling mill. I suspect the rest of this month will be getting everything in order. Since I'm moving stuff around the shop, I'm also gona take the time to replace the oak ties under the air hammer.....THEN.......PAR-TEY in the shop!

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Caffreyknives@gmail.com"Nobody cares what you know.....until they know you care."See me at table 2Q at the Blade Show!

Rob: Jim's just slightly changing directions.... I think he's gona be turning out folders now. Besides, with the press and rolling mill at my place....maybe I can coax him here more often!

Craig: Yes....that power unit is a hoss. I'll spend the day today suffling things around the shop, but my big decision is what I need to rent in order to move it......Jim did it with a 763 bobcat....but it was all that bobcat could do to handle the power unit.... and I'm not nearly as good on a bobcat as Jim is.

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Caffreyknives@gmail.com"Nobody cares what you know.....until they know you care."See me at table 2Q at the Blade Show!

Busy day today. Rented a big (tracked) bobcat to unload and get the new tools into the shop, pulled out the air hammer and replaced the oak ties underneath it (added 4" to the height), got "Orange Crush", and the rolling mill into the shop, and in place, then got the hydraulic power unit nestled under the overhang on the back of the shop. Now the real work starts.... plumbing in the hydraulics, and then getting everything hooked up and "tweaked" to run well. I'll get pics posted in the morning, but from now my tail is draggin.....so I think about an 8 hour nap is in order.

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Caffreyknives@gmail.com"Nobody cares what you know.....until they know you care."See me at table 2Q at the Blade Show!

OK....after my 8 hour nap, heres some pics of what went on at the shop yesterday...

First up, the only reason I got so much done....rented a big tracked bobcat...

First job was to pull the air hammer out of the shop, and replace the oak ties underneath it.... the old ties gave me a height of 16"..... I replaced them with ones that added 4" to the height. Now I don't have to squat to use the hammer!
With the old ties...

Back in the shop with the new ties under it.....

"Orange Crush:, and the rolling mill in the shop....

And finally, the hydraulic power unit nestled under the overhang on the back of the hot shop...

Still lots to do.... Gotta get the hydraulics plumbed into the shop, get everything hooked up, and running....then...... We gona make some steel!!

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Caffreyknives@gmail.com"Nobody cares what you know.....until they know you care."See me at table 2Q at the Blade Show!

The "pass through" I built to run the hoses through the shop wall. 2x pcs of 4" pipe, welded to the cover plate on the outside, and then slipped over the interior.

I placed pipe insulation over the hoses to hopefully keep them of rubbing/wearing against the steel pipe.... and will use "expanding foam" to fill the airspace.

From the exterior:

Then ran the hoses behind my steel rack, and to the power unit:

The rolling mill with the foot control I built/installed, and the press with the pneumatic foot pedal (still waiting on a new air regulator to arrive, so I can hook up the air and see if I can get it adjusted to work properly), if the air foot pedal doesn't work out like I want, I suspect I'll relocate the hydraulic valve to the bottom of the press, and build/install a mechanical foot control.

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Caffreyknives@gmail.com"Nobody cares what you know.....until they know you care."See me at table 2Q at the Blade Show!

Yesterday Jay Kemble came down from Milk River, AB, and hooked up the remote wiring for the power unit.....now I can start it up, and shut it down from inside the shop! We also tested both the press and rolling mill, checked all the lines for leaks....and so far it seems everything is good. The foot control for the rollng mill works great, and now I'm just waiting for the new air regulator to arrive, so I can hook up the pneumatinc foot control for the press, and see if I can "tweak" it to work the way I'd like it to.

With all the "new" stuff in the shop, I decided it was time for a new anvil stand too. The old one was made of pine, which is about all thats available in this part of the world. But last fall when Cindy and I went back east, we brought back a trailer full of oak, walnut, and cherry. I made the anvil stand from 4, 19" sections of 6"x6" white oak, and true 2" x 8" oak boards. I'd forgotten how tough and hard oak really is! I burned up a brand new 10" blade on my mitre saw, and literally had to drill EVERY screw hole in the whole project. (yep, I twisted off a few screws before I started drilling )

As soon as I get everything cleaned up, I'll try to get some video of everything running and post that.

Whew! What I thought was going to be a simply machine install, became a mid level renovation.....but thats OK.....it'll all be worth it!

__________________

Caffreyknives@gmail.com"Nobody cares what you know.....until they know you care."See me at table 2Q at the Blade Show!